Apto Commercial Real Estate Blog

Startup clients are the oddballs of commercial real estate. They generally don't have a deep knowledge of the local real estate market since their specialty lies elsewhere, but they do potentially have recently earned venture cash to spend on a desirable work space. New York City startups, for example, saw $1.9B in VC investmentin the first quarter of 2016.

When did you get sick of hearing about “Big Data”? Was it 2012? 2009? Before that?

It’s still a buzz phrase in pretty much every industry, and CRE is no exception. Unfortunately, it’s misused or misunderstood more often than not. If you were to ask 10 of your peers, “What is Big Data?”, you’d likely get 10 different answers. And if you followed that up with: “How can we use Big Data to help our brokerage?”, the response may sound like a symphony of crickets.

Even people who write about it often only get part of the story. Big Data can give you all the information you need to grow your business—but what does that really mean?

Commercial real estate tends to be dominated by the Baby Boomer crowd, but that changes a little bit more every year. The next generation is entering your workforce—maybe you already have a few on your team. Is your brokerage keeping up with the changes?

We've expounded on prospecting tips before, and despite the abundance of new CRE tech that promises to change the industry and make your life easier, cold calling is still probably still a big part of your process.

Many applicants for a broker position probably look good on paper, and since commercial real estate is a sales position, many can make themselves look good in person, too. So how do you really determine the best candidate and fit for your team?

Here are a few questions that can lead to big insights on your next potential hire.

Are you up to date on the latest laws and regulations affecting the commercial real estate industry? To offer value to your clients—and keep your business prepared for the future—you need to be informed about new and impending legislation that will impact CRE.